A BABYSITTER cleared of the horrific murder of a Teesside toddler was today back home with her loving family.

Suzanne Holdsworth yesterday saw her conviction for the murder of Hartlepool two-year-old Kyle Fisher quashed by London’s Court of Appeal.

And today it emerged she had accepted a marriage proposal from her partner of 19 years Lee Spencer - the man who campaigned for her freedom.

Miss Holdsworth, 37, has been granted bail while she awaits a retrial after the appeal judges ruled new medical evidence made her Teesside Crown Court conviction in 2005 unsafe.

Mr Spencer, also 37, today said the ruling was the news he and his family had been longing for.

He said: “I’m overwhelmed. It’s been a long time coming. It’s a miscarriage of justice and a retrial has been awarded. There are still a few questions to be answered and I think the retrial will answer those.

“Suzanne is bewildered as to the fact that she told the truth the first time - and all the time. She can’t get over it.”

Mr Spencer now lives in Leeds with the couple’s two daughters 13-year-old Jamie-Leigh and Lesley, 19. He was reunited there with Miss Holdsworth last night.

He said: “I love the woman, she loves me and we both love our children.

“She’s a wonderful woman and a wonderful mother and the children always come first to her.”

Miss Holdsworth was jailed for life after a jury heard she smashed Kyle’s head against a banister with the force of being thrown from a car at 60mph while minding the toddler at her home in Millpool Close, Hartlepool.

Kyle, of Troutpool Close, Hartlepool, was rushed to hospital in August 2004, but died two days later from severe brain swelling.

Miss Holdsworth consistently denied injuring the child and claimed he had suffered a fit.

Lord Justice Toulson, quashing the conviction yesterday, said the appeal court could not “safely dismiss the medical scenario advanced on the applicant’s behalf as definitely incredible”.

Mr Spencer added: “It’s been an emotional roller coaster but we struggle by. The one thing we can’t forget is a two-year-old child died and nothing is going to bring Kyle back and we do sympathise with Kyle’s family.”

Mr Spencer said he now hoped to see his partner cleared in the retrial.

In a statement yesterday Kyle’s family said the judgement had reopened their “heartache”.

They said: “All we have ever wanted was to know the truth about what happened to Kyle. Since his death our lives have focused around the case. Not one of us has been able to move on.

“Today’s decision has brought all the heartache back. However, we will fully co-operate in the preparation for the retrial.”

But Kyle’s paternal grandmother Jane Whitfield said she was “happy” Miss Holdsworth had been released because she never believed the babysitter was responsible for her grandson’s death.

The 47-year-old grandmother of nine said: “I’m so happy for Suzanne Holdsworth. I was there every day of the trial and I don’t think the evidence proved she did it. There are so many questions still to be answered.”